Neandertals Not Our Ancestors, DNA Study Suggests (Whewww!!!)

National Geographic News ^ | 5/14/03 | Hillary Mayell

[NormsRevenge]

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[rmlew]

Evolution at its best: genocide.

[AmericaUnited]

Don't worry humanists and atheists. You can still claim to have been accidentally formed from a blob of primoral mud.

Meanwhile, us God-fearing folk will continue celebrating that we were "fearfully and wonderfully" made by a Creator.

[Godel]

Just as well neanderthals arent around anymore. Can you imagine the affirmative action benefits they would get?

[f.Christian]

I remember seeing something about a collapsed roof cave dig ...

in sw Asia -- china that was hundred of thousands years old ---

that had all european skeletons in it ... all carbon dated too !

[Yaron]

What a load of rubbish. How on earth would they know they are European?

[Yaron]

My imaginary friend beats your imaginary friend anyday.

[LuisBasco]

Just as well neanderthals arent around anymore

They're here. Today we call them DemocRATs. (e.g.: Klintons, Ellen Goodman, Teddy Kennedy, Robert Byrd-Brain, etc. etc. etc. etc.)

[Tijeras_Slim]

How on earth would they know they are European?

They were wearing berets.

[FITZ]

You can understand if the Neanderthal were French why the Cro-Magnan so easily took over.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Cheese eating surrender homonids.

[Constitution Day]

I wonder how this news will make Mrs. CD feel. (She's a redhead)
;~)

Redheads 'are neanderthal'

[Adder]

LOL! I was thinking the same thing. Too bad the mitochondrial rna didn't pan out: It would have explained a lot of things.

[B.Bumbleberry]

all carbon dated too !

Better check your sources. Carbon dating is good for only about 40,000 years. After that the remaining amounts of radioactive carbon become too small to measure. With some very sophisticated measuring equipment, maybe 50-60,000 years BP. Hence C14 dating for remains hundreds of thousand of years old is not possible. Other dating techniques for older fossils do not involve carbon.

[martianagent]

"Our results add to the evidence collected previously in different fields, making the hypothesis of a 'Neandertal heritage' very unlikely," said Giorgio Bertorelle...

Doesn't that make the entire theory of evolution very unlikely? In other words, if we're not descended from neanderthals, then from what? Neanderthals and homo sapiens are the two basic species of human-like creatures we have evidence for; everything else is basically apes or ape-like creatures.

[AmericaUnited]

My imaginary friend beats your imaginary friend anyday.

Oh really? And how do you come to that conclusion?

[rmlew]

One can explain the separate adn competing hominid species of H. Sapien Neanderthalis and H. Sapien Sapien(Cro-Magnon/Modern Humans) quite easily. They each spereately evolved from H. Erectus. Neanderthals left Africa first, Cro-Magnon came 80,000 years later. Cro-Magnon were smarter and more adaptable. Thus they out competed and/or killed off the Neanderthals.

This is hardly unique. Bonbos and Chimpanzees are the closest living relatives to humans. These great apes are virtually identical. However, Chimps are more competitive and will hunt for food. The Bonobos preffer a pure cegitarian diet and have a society built of sexual relations. Bonobos are dying out. Chimps survive.

[FITZ]

Bonobos are dying out.

They also sound a lot like the French!

[COBOL2Java]

In my undergraduate years, I decided to take Geology, Anthropology and Archeology for my Science requirements. I enjoyed them very much; did a paper on dendrochronology which I thought was very interesting (evidently my professor agreed, he gave me an A).

One lecture I remember was about Neanderthal Man. The witticism tossed out by the lecturer stays with me today: "If a Neanderthal man were with us today, I suppose he would look just like Fred Flintstone."

[martianagent]

One can explain the separate adn competing hominid species of H. Sapien Neanderthalis and H. Sapien Sapien(Cro-Magnon/Modern Humans) quite easily. They each spereately evolved from H. Erectus.

Really? On a scale of one to ten with an ape being one and a human ten, the neanderthal would be about a nine, while home erectus would be about a six or a seven. If we can't be descended from neanderthals because they're too apelike, how are we descended from homo erectus which is even more apelike? Or did you think home erectus was just some gay guy with a hard on???